25 March 2015

"Indissolubility is not a curse, it is the great beauty of the marital relationship."

Cardinal Burke is a good interview at any time, but this interview at LifesiteNews is very, very good. Just hearing the truth out of the mouth of anyone on the Church's payroll is welcome these days. But in Cardinal Burke we have so much more than that. He is the standard-bearer among the hierarchy for true Catholic Charity-- love and truth, mercy and justice united. We must remain steadfast; we can do nothing else.Just a few money quotes from an interview that should be read-- and studied-- in its entirety:--------

LSN: It was said after
the publication of the relatio post disceptationem that there was a
manipulation that consisted in putting into the synod questions that actually
have nothing to do with the family. Would you accept to express yourself on how
and why this “manipulation” took place? Who is benefiting?

CB: It's clear that there was a manipulation because the
actual interventions of the members of the synod were not published, and only
the mid-term report, or the “relatio post disceptationem”, was given, which had
really nothing to do with what was being presented in the synod. And so it's
clear to me that there were individuals who obviously had a very strong influence
on the synod process who were pushing an agenda which has nothing to do with
the truth about marriage as Our Lord Himself teaches it to us, as it is handed
down to us in the Church. That agenda had to do with trying to justify
extra-marital sexual relations and sexual acts between persons of the same sex
and, in a way, clearly to relativize and even to obscure the beauty of the
Church's teaching on marriage as a faithful, indissoluble, procreative union of
one man and one woman.

- - -

LSN: Repeatedly, even
the synod fathers who have touted the issues of “remarriage” of divorcee and
homosexual or non-marital unions have repeated that the question is not
doctrinal, but pastoral. What is your response to that?

CB: That simply is a false distinction. There cannot be
anything that's truly pastorally sound which is not doctrinally sound. In other
words: you cannot divide the truth from love. In other words still: it can't be
loving not to live the truth. And so to say that we're just making pastoral
changes that have nothing to do with doctrine is false. If you admit persons
who are in irregular matrimonial unions to Holy Communion, then you're directly
making a statement about the indissolubility of marriage, because Our Lord
said: “He who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery.” And the
person in an irregular matrimonial union is living in a publicly adulterous
state. If you give Holy Communion to that person then somehow you're saying
that this is alright doctrinally. But it can't be.

LSN: So the simple
fact of putting that under discussion is already an error.

CB: Yes. In fact I have asked more than once that these
subjects which have nothing to do with the truth about marriage be taken out of
the agenda of the synod. [If people want to discuss these questions, fine, but
they have nothing to do with the Church's teaching on marriage.] And the same
goes for the question of sexual acts between people of the same sex, and so
forth.

- - -

LSN: How can the
Church really help all those concerned: abandoned spouses, children of
legitimate marriages who are hurt by the divorce of their parents, people who
are struggling with homosexual tendencies or who have in a way let themselves
be “trapped” into an illegitimate union? And what should our attitude be: the
attitude of the faithful?

CB: What the Church can do, and that is the greatest act of
love on the part of the Church, is to present the teaching on marriage, the
teaching that comes from Christ's very words, the teaching which has been
constant in the tradition, to everyone, as a sign of hope for them. And also,
to help them to recognize the sinfulness of the situation in which they find
themselves, and at the same time call
them to leave that sinful situation and to find a way to live in accord with
the truth. And that's the only way the Church can help. That was my great hope
for the synod: that the synod would hold up to the world the great beauty of
marriage, and that beauty is the truth about marriage. I always say to people:
indissolubility is not a curse, it is the great beauty of the marital
relationship. This is what gives beauty to the relationship between a man and a
woman, that the union is indissoluble, that it is faithful, that it is
procreative. But now one almost begins to get the impression that somehow the
Church is ashamed of the very beautiful treasure which we have in marriage, as
God made man and woman from the beginning.

- - -

LSN: Would you agree,
as a number of people are saying, that many Catholic marriages today, through
insufficient preparation or ignorance of the meaning of the marriage vows, are
often invalid? What was your specific experience on this point as prefect of
supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura?

CB: I thing it's very unwarranted to make general statements
about the number of marriages which are valid or invalid. Each marriage must be
examined, and the fact that people may have not been well catechized and so
forth certainly can weaken them for the married life, but it would not
necessarily be an indication that they would give an invalid matrimonial
consent, because nature itself teaches us about marriage. We saw this at the
Apostolic Signatura: yes, there were more declarations of nullity of marriage
but in examining those cases there were many that came forward in which the
nullity of marriage was not established, was not shown to be true.

- - -

LSN: Do you think there
is a link between the “death of the cult” – non adoring, anthropocentric
liturgy – and the culture of death?

CB: I'm very convinced that where abuses entered into
liturgical practice in the Church, abuses which reflected a very anthropocentric
direction, in other words, where the sacred worship began to be presented as
the activity of man instead of the action of God in our midst, that clearly has
led people in a wrong direction, and has had a very negative impact on the life
of every individual and in a particular way upon married life. The beauty of
married life is in a very particular way perceived and confirmed in the
Eucharistic Sacrifice.n to be true.

- - -

LSN: How can we best
remain faithful to the Church and to the Pope in these troubled times?

CB: By adhering very clearly to what the Church has always
taught and practiced; this is our anchor. Our faith is not in individual
persons, our faith is in Jesus Christ. He alone is our salvation, and He is
alive for us in the Church through her teaching, through her sacraments, and
through her discipline. I say to people – because many people today are in
communication with me who find themselves quite confused, they're worried and
upset – no, we must remain calm, and we must remain full of hope by coming to an
ever deeper appreciation of the truth of our faith, and adhering to that.
That's unchanging, and that will be victorious in the end. Christ told Saint
Peter when he made his confession of faith: "The gates of hell will not
prevail against the Church." We know that this is true, and we have to
suffer in the meantime for the truth, but we must be confident that Our Lord
will win the victory in the end.

A Day That Will Live in Glory

Pray for the Four Cardinals: Burke, Caffarra, Meiser and Brandmuller

“You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day."